Facilitating encrypted persistent storage in browsers

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are some implementations of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for encrypting and securely storing session data during a browser session using a session-based cryptographic key. The session data may be decrypted during the browser session or other browser sessions using the session-based cryptographic key or other backwards compatible session-based cryptographic keys. In addition, session-based cryptographic keys may be shared among browser sessions to enable encrypted session data to be decrypted across page refreshes and browser tabs.

PRIORITY DATA

This application claims priority of co-pending and commonly assignedU.S. Provisional Application No. 62/415,632, entitled “EncryptedPersistent Storage in Browser,” by Venkiteswaran et al., filed on Nov.1, 2016 (Attorney Docket No. 1801PROV), which is incorporated byreference in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to facilitating encryptedpersistent storage in browsers. More specifically, this patent documentdiscloses techniques for facilitating the persistent storage of data ina secure manner across browser sessions and the use of cryptographickeys across browser sessions to decrypt encrypted session data.

BACKGROUND

In a web application environment, customer data is typically stored in adata center. Since security of the customer data is often paramount tomany customer situations, the customer data cannot be stored outside thedata center. As a result, a browser operating on a client devicetypically requests customer data from a web server each time customerdata is displayed. This leads to inefficiencies because the clientdevice must make multiple data requests to the server in order toretrieve data across browser tabs and page refreshes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a web application environment 100, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an aspect of a cross-session secure storagesystem 200, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for implementingpersistent encrypted storage in browsers, in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 4 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 400 forimplementing persistent encrypted storage during a browser session, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 500 forimplementing persistent encrypted storage across browser sessions, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 6 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 600 forimplementing cryptographic keys across browser sessions, in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 700 for implementingpersistent encrypted storage using a cryptographic key, in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a system 800, in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 9A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 9 B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 9A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 10A shows a system diagram of an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 900, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 10B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program productsaccording to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Typically, web applications do not enable data maintained in datacenters to be persisted locally at client devices. Furthermore, browsersgenerally do not support encrypted data storage. As a result, whenmultiple instances of a web application are simultaneously active on agiven client device, the client device must typically re-fetch data froma web server for each instance of the web application. Theseinefficiencies can impact the operation of the web server, as well asthe client device.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forfacilitating the persistent storage of data in a secure manner acrossbrowser sessions (e.g., page refreshes and browser tabs) of a webbrowser. The system may use a database such as an indexed database toprovide structured persistent storage. In addition, the system mayemploy web cryptography in the browser to encrypt session data anddecrypt encrypted session data stored in the structured persistentstorage. The system may utilize cryptographic logic to generatecryptographic session-based keys and utilize storage serviceabstractions of how and where to store data. The cryptographic sessionkeys may be stored in ephemeral memory to ensure that encrypted data isstored in a secure manner.

The system may encrypt cached data at rest and persist it to disk. Inaccordance with various implementations, the browser stores encryptedsession data in a browser cache. In some implementations, the system mayuse an indexed database to store encrypted session data. Encryptedsession data stored in the indexed database may be accessed via anapplication programming interface (API).

Session data may include data such as customer data. For example, thedata may be obtained from fields of records stored in a customerdatabase. As another example, the data may include metadata such asinformation indicating locations at which the data is stored, eitherlocally or remotely.

In accordance with various implementations, the system may derivecryptographic keys from session identifiers. When a web application isbooted, the web application may execute a per-session request for acryptographic key that is derived from the user's session and which islinked to the lifecycle of the session data. In a typical use scenario,there is one main authentication session and different, subsequentbrowser sub-sessions derived from that main authentication session. Thesystem may include an abstraction logic layer to access browsercryptography logic and encrypted session data across browser tabs andpage refreshes. In addition, the system may implement key storage logicto accelerate performance during browser sessions of a web browser,resulting in fewer server requests.

By way of illustration, John is an employee at an organization, PyramidConstruction, Inc. John logs in to a web site of the organization toaccess a web application that provides information regarding businessopportunities of the organization. John accesses a user interface (UI)using a browser of a client device to view data pertaining to a businessopportunity, XYZ. John is viewing the information via a web pagerendered via a display when the browser crashes. After the browsercrashes, the data will still be accessible, whereas with conventionalapproaches the data will have been purged and is no longer accessible tothe browser. The disclosed techniques may be applied to facilitate theencryption, retrieval, and decryption of session data across browsersessions of a web browser, as will be described in further detail below.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a web application environment 100, inaccordance with some implementations. A web application environment 100generally includes a client device 102 (e.g., mobile phone, laptop,tablet, and personal computer), a browser 104 (e.g., Safari, InternetExplorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera), and a server 106(e.g., LAMP, Windows server, etc). To improve the performance of webapplications it is advantageous to store customer data locally at theclient device 102. However, this has historically not been feasible,since there fails to be a mechanism for securely persisting customerdata outside of the data center. This leads to inefficiencies becausethe client device 102 must make multiple data requests to the server 106in order to retrieve data across browser tabs and page refreshes.

In one typical use scenario, a user completes a user authenticationprocess to use the web application and receives a session ID. The clientdevice 102 may transmit a request for a cryptographic key, and acryptographic key may be generated for use in encrypting session datareceived during browser sessions associated with the session ID.Encrypted session data may be stored to disk or ephemeral memory,depending on the browser capabilities.

If the browser closes or crashes during the session and is subsequentlyre-activated, the user may be automatically “re-authenticated.” In someimplementations, the re-authentication process may include determiningwhether the current browser session is a child of, or related to, theprevious browser session. If such a relationship is determined, a newencryption key for the new session may be generated that is compatiblewith the encrypted data from the previous session. If the new session isnot a child of, or related to, the previous session, a cryptographic keythat is not compatible with the encrypted data from the previous sessionmay be generated. As a result, the previously stored encrypted sessiondata in the browser cache may become inaccessible, and the session datamay be retrieved from the server again.

In some implementations, the browser may determine if a cryptographickey is valid by decrypting an encrypted sentinel value. This additionalsecurity check enables system administrators a greater degree of accesscontrols over customer data. For example, a system administrator mayexecute control to disallow access to cached data while browser 104 isoffline, rendering the cryptographic key invalid. In addition, a systemadministrator may further disallow the user to re-authenticate andretrieve the customer data from the server.

If the cryptographic key cannot decrypt the encrypted sentinel value,the browser may ascertain that the cryptographic key is not valid. Wherethe cryptographic key is determined to be invalid, the encrypted sessiondata may become inaccessible and the encrypted session data may beflushed from the browser cache or database. After the session data hasbecome inaccessible, the browser may request the session data from theserver again.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an aspect of a cross-session secure storagesystem 200, in accordance with some implementations. As shown in thisexample, a cross-session secure storage system 200 includes a browsersession 202 between a server 204 operated by an administrator 210 and abrowser 206 executed by a client system 216 operated by a user. Thebrowser session 202 may be linked to (e.g., related to) a mainauthentication session 212 via a common session identifier (ID) providedby server 204 to browser 206. The browser session 202 may utilizeencrypted session data 208 that is encrypted and decrypted using acryptographic key 220 via an encryption abstraction layer 214. Althougha single browser session 202 of a web browser is illustrated in thisexample, encrypted session data 208 may also be encrypted and decryptedduring another browser session of the web browser using cryptographickey 220 or another backwards compatible cryptographic key. Thecross-session secure storage system 200 may be operated in accordancewith a process for persistent encrypted storage in browser 206, as willbe described in further detail below with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for implementingpersistent encrypted storage in web browsers, in accordance with someimplementations. As shown in this example, a process for persistentencrypted storage in web browsers 300 may assign a session ID from amain authentication session to a browser session and a cryptographic key(e.g., a symmetric or asymmetric cryptographic key) associated with thesession ID may be generated at 302. (The cryptographic key may beapplied via an encryption abstraction layer to encrypt session data inmemory at 304.

A subsequent browser session may be initiated, either automatically orin response to a user action. For example, a subsequent browser sessionmay be initiated if the browser crashes. As another example, asubsequent browser session may be initiated in response to a pagerefresh. As yet another example, a subsequent browser session may beinitiated in association with a browser tab.

During the subsequent browser session, the web browser may transmit acryptographic key request to a server at 306. The server may perform asession check to determine if the browser session is a child of the mainauthentication session at 308. As described above, the session check maybe performed to determine whether the cryptographic key is valid. Insome implementations, the session check may include decrypting a dummyencrypted value (e.g., sentinel value) with the cryptographic key.

If the session check succeeds, previously encrypted session data may beretrieved from memory and decrypted using the cryptographic key. If thesession check fails, the browser may request re-transmission of thesession data from the server at 310. In some implementations, if thesession check fails, the main authentication session may invalidate thecryptographic key, and the browser session may restart. Therefore,decryption of the session data in the memory may be dependent upon thesession check succeeding.

FIG. 4 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 400 forimplementing persistent encrypted storage during a browser session, inaccordance with some implementations. Operations that may be performedbetween a client 402 and system 404 including a web server are describedin further detail below. More particularly, a user of a client device402 may complete login 406 to system 404. After the user hassuccessfully completed a login process, system 404 may provide a sessionidentifier (SID) at 408 to client 402. Client 402 may request acryptographic key at 410 from system 404. For example, client 402 maytransmit a key request that includes the SID, enabling system 404 toassign a cryptographic key for the session. System 404 may provide acryptographic key at 412 to client 402. Client 402 may fetch data at 414from system 404 during a browser session. After receiving session dataat 416 from system 404, client 402 may encrypt the session data usingthe cryptographic key at 418 and store the encrypted data in memory at420. For example, the encrypted data may be stored in a browser cache orindexed database. The encrypted data may subsequently be retrieved frommemory and decrypted using the cryptographic key during the browsersession or subsequent related browser sessions.

The user may choose to log out, as shown at 422. After the user haslogged out, the system 404 may invalidate the session ID and/orcryptographic key associated with the session. After the cryptographickey has been invalidated, the key may no longer be used to decryptpreviously stored session data. In addition, the encrypted session datamay be deleted. For example, the browser cache may be purged of theencrypted session data.

FIG. 5 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 500 forimplementing persistent encrypted storage across browser sessions, inaccordance with some implementations. Operations that may be performedby a system 502 including a web server and a client browser during afirst browser session 504 and a second browser session 506 are describedbelow. As shown in this example, during a first browser session 504 of aweb browser, the client browser may send a cryptographic key request tosystem 502 at 508, where the cryptographic key request identifies a SIDassociated with the first browser session. The client browser may obtaina first cryptographic key associated with the session ID at 510. Forexample, the first cryptographic key may be a symmetric or asymmetriccryptographic key.

The client browser may fetch data during the first browser session at512. After receiving session data at 514, the client browser may applythe first cryptographic key to generate encrypted session data at 516.The encrypted session data may be stored in memory at 518. For example,the encrypted session data may be stored in a memory of a browser (e.g.,a browser cache).

A second browser session that is related to the first browser sessionmay be initiated. For example, the second browser session may beinitiated after a page refresh or after the user clicks on another tabwithin the web page. During the second browser session, the web browsermay transmit a second cryptographic key request to the web server at520. Since the second browser session may be associated with the SID ofthe first browser session, the second key request may include the SID.Responsive to the second cryptographic key request, the web browser mayreceive a second cryptographic key from the web server at 522.

In some implementations, the second cryptographic key may be backwardscompatible with the first cryptographic key. For example, the secondcryptographic key may be used to decrypt previously stored encryptedsession data. During the second browser session, the web browser mayretrieve the encrypted session data from the memory at 524. Theencrypted session data may then be decrypted using the secondcryptographic key at 526.

In some instances, a cryptographic key may be backwards compatible, butnot forward compatible. In other words, a cryptographic key may be usedto decrypt previously stored session data, but it may not be used todecrypt encrypted session data stored during subsequent browsersessions.

In some implementations, the browser may determine whether a particularcryptographic key is valid or “functional.” In other words, the browsermay determine whether a particular cryptographic key is configured todecrypt encrypted session data. In some implementations, the browser maydetermine whether a particular cryptographic key is valid (e.g.,configured to decrypt encrypted session data) by decrypting an encryptedsentinel value with the cryptographic key. For example, the browser maydetermine whether the second cryptographic key is valid by decrypting anencrypted sentinel value with the second cryptographic key. If thecryptographic key is determined to be valid, the browser may decryptpreviously encrypted session data using the cryptographic key. Forexample, if the second cryptographic key is determined to be valid,session data that was encrypted during the first browser session may bedecrypted using the second cryptographic key.

FIG. 6 shows a process flow diagram of an example of a method 600 forimplementing cryptographic keys across browser sessions, in accordancewith some implementations. As described above with reference to FIG. 5,two different browser sessions or instances may use differentcryptographic keys across different instances of a web application. Inthis example, the first cryptographic key associated with the firstbrowser session may be used to decrypt data that has been received andencrypted during the first browser session. Similarly, the secondcryptographic key associated with the second browser session may be usedto decrypt data that has been received and encrypted during the secondbrowser session.

In some implementations, cryptographic keys associated with a particularsession ID are backwards compatible, but are not forwards compatible.Thus, the second cryptographic key associated with the session ID may beused to decrypt session data that was encrypted during the first browsersession, while the first cryptographic key associated with the sessionID may not be used to decrypt session data that is encrypted during thesecond browser session.

In some implementations, all cryptographic keys that are generated inassociation with a particular SID are identical. However, even where thecryptographic keys that are generated in association a SID areidentical, cryptographic keys may periodically be updated or “cycled”over time to increase the security with which session data is encryptedand stored. As a result, two different cryptographic keys associatedwith the same SID may be different from each other at a given point intime.

In accordance with various implementations, a second browser instanceoperating during the second browser session transmits the secondcryptographic key to a first browser instance operating during the firstbrowser session so that the first browser instance may decrypt sessiondata that is encrypted during the second browser session. As shown inthis example, the second browser instance may fetch session data at 602.After receiving session data 2 at 604, the second browser instance mayapply the second cryptographic key to encrypt the session data 2received during the second browser session at 606. After storingencrypted session data 2 at 608, encrypted session data 2 may beretrieved and decrypted using the second cryptographic key.

As shown in this example, the second browser instance may transmit a keynotification including the second cryptographic key at 610 to the firstbrowser instance, enabling the first browser instance to use the secondcryptographic key to decrypt session data that was encrypted during thesecond browser session. For example, the second browser instance maytransmit the key notification in response to obtaining the secondcryptographic key. The first browser instance may store the secondcryptographic key at 612. For example, the second cryptographic key maybe stored in ephemeral memory. The first browser instance may retrieveencrypted data 2 (encrypted during the second browser session) frommemory (e.g., a browser cache) at 614 and decrypt the encrypted data 2at 616 using the second cryptographic key. In this manner, new orupdated cryptographic keys may be communicated across browser instancesoperating during related browser sessions.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 700 for implementingpersistent encrypted storage using a cryptographic key, in accordancewith some implementations. As shown in this example, a web browser maytransmit a cryptographic key request to a web server at 702 to request acryptographic key associated with a particular Session ID. After the webbrowser receives a cryptographic key associated with the Session ID at704 from the web server, the web browser may attempt to decryptpreviously encrypted session data. However, it is possible that anadministrator has disallowed access to cached data by invalidating thecryptographic key.

In accordance with various implementations, the browser may periodicallydetermine whether the cryptographic key is valid at 706. In someimplementations, the browser may communicate with the web server todetermine whether the cryptographic key is valid. In furtherimplementations, the web browser may determine whether the cryptographickey is valid by determining whether the cryptographic key decrypts asentinel value within a database.

If the web browser determines that the cryptographic key is not valid(e.g., the cryptographic key has not successfully decrypted the sentinelvalue) at 708, the web browser may delete the encrypted session data(e.g., by clearing a browser cache) at 710. The web browser maysubsequently request session data from the web server.

As described above, a browser instance operating during a browsersession may transmit a cryptographic key to other browser instancesoperating during “related” browser sessions (e.g., other browsersessions associated with the same session ID). In some implementations,if the cryptographic key is determined to be valid, the browser instancemay transmit the cryptographic key to other browser instance(s)associated with the session ID at 712. In addition, the web browser maydetermine whether session data associated with the session ID is inmemory of the client device at 714. For example, the web browser maycheck whether session data associated with the session ID is in abrowser cache or database of the web browser. If the browser determinesat 716 that the session data associated with the session ID is in thememory, the browser may retrieve the encrypted session data from thememory at 718 and decrypt the encrypted session data using thecryptographic key at 720. If the web browser determines that the sessiondata associated with the session ID is not in memory, the browser mayrequest the session data from a web server at 722, encrypt the sessiondata using the cryptographic key at 724, and store the encrypted sessiondata in the memory (e.g., browser cache or database) at 726.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a system 800, in accordance with someimplementations. In various embodiments, system 800 may include one ormore physical and/or logical devices that collectively provide thefunctionalities described herein. In some embodiments, system 800 maycomprise one or more replicated and/or distributed physical or logicaldevices.

In some embodiments, system 800 may include one or more computingresources provisioned from a “cloud computing” provider, for example,Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (“Amazon EC2”), provided by Amazon.com,Inc. of Seattle, Wash.; Sun Cloud Compute Utility, provided by SunMicrosystems, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.; Windows Azure, provided byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., and the like. In this example,system 800 includes a bus 802 interconnecting several componentsincluding a network interface 808, a display 806, a central processingunit 810, and a memory 804.

Memory 804 generally comprises a random access memory (“RAM”) andpermanent non-transitory mass storage device, such as a hard disk driveor solid-state drive. Memory 804 may store an operating system 812.These and other software components may be loaded into memory 804 ofsystem 800 using a drive mechanism (not shown) associated with anon-transitory computer-readable medium 816, such as a floppy disc,tape, DVD/CD-ROM drive, memory card, or the like.

Memory 804 may include a database 814 such as an indexed database. Insome embodiments, system 800 may communicate with database 814 vianetwork interface 808, a storage area network (“SAN”), a high-speedserial bus, and/or via the other suitable communication technology.

In some implementations, database 814 may comprise one or more storageresources provisioned from a “cloud storage” provider, for example,Amazon Simple Storage Service (“Amazon S3”), provided by Amazon.com,Inc. of Seattle, Wash., Google Cloud Storage, provided by Google, Inc.of Mountain View, Calif., and the like.

In various implementations, system 800 may include a desktop PC, server,workstation, mobile phone, laptop, tablet, set-top box, appliance, orother computing device that is capable of performing operations such asthose described herein. In some implementations, system 800 may includemany more components than those shown in FIG. 8. However, it is notnecessary that all of these generally conventional components be shownin order to disclose an illustrative embodiment.

Collectively, the various tangible components or a subset of thetangible components may be referred to herein as “logic” configured oradapted in a particular way, for example as logic configured or adaptedwith particular software or firmware. “Logic” may refer to machinememory circuits, non-transitory machine readable media, and/or circuitrywhich by way of its material and/or material-energy configurationcomprises control and/or procedural signals, and/or settings and values(such as resistance, impedance, capacitance, inductance, current/voltageratings, etc.), that may be applied to influence the operation of adevice. Magnetic media, electronic circuits, electrical and opticalmemory (both volatile and nonvolatile), and firmware are examples oflogic. Logic specifically excludes pure signals or software per se(however does not exclude machine memories comprising software andthereby forming configurations of matter).

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that logic may be distributedthroughout one or more devices, and/or may be comprised of combinationsmemory, media, processing circuits and controllers, other circuits, andso on. Therefore, in the interest of clarity and correctness logic maynot always be distinctly illustrated in drawings of devices and systems,although it is inherently present therein. The techniques and proceduresdescribed herein may be implemented via logic distributed in one or morecomputing devices. The particular distribution and choice of logic willvary according to implementation. Those having skill in the art willappreciate that there are various logic implementations by whichprocesses and/or systems described herein can be effected (e.g.,hardware, software, and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehiclewill vary with the context in which the processes are deployed.“Software” refers to logic that may be readily readapted to differentpurposes (e.g. read/write volatile or nonvolatile memory or media).“Firmware” refers to logic embodied as read-only memories and/or media.“Hardware” refers to logic embodied as analog and/or digital circuits.If an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, theimplementer may opt for a hardware and/or firmware vehicle;alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt fora solely software implementation; or, yet again alternatively, theimplementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles by which theprocesses described herein may be effected, none of which is inherentlysuperior to the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choicedependent upon the context in which the vehicle will be deployed and thespecific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of theimplementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that optical aspects of implementations may involveoptically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts,and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/orexamples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will beunderstood as notorious by those within the art that each functionand/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples canbe implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range ofhardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof.Several portions of the subject matter described herein may beimplemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), orother integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art willrecognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, inwhole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in standard integratedcircuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or morecomputers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computersystems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors(e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors),as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designingthe circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and/or firmwarewould be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light ofthis disclosure.

In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that themechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that anillustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein appliesequally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media usedto actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal bearingmedia include, but are not limited to, the following: recordable typemedia such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, CD ROMs, digital tape,flash drives, SD cards, solid state fixed or removable storage, andcomputer memory.

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that thevarious aspects described herein which can be implemented, individuallyand/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, orany combination thereof can be viewed as being composed of various typesof “circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein “circuitry” includes, butis not limited to, electrical circuitry having at least one discreteelectrical circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one integratedcircuit, electrical circuitry having at least one application specificintegrated circuit, circuitry forming a general purpose computing deviceconfigured by a computer program (e.g., a general purpose computerconfigured by a computer program which at least partially carries outprocesses and/or devices described herein, or a microprocessorconfigured by a computer program which at least partially carries outprocesses and/or devices described herein), circuitry forming a memorydevice (e.g., forms of random access memory), and/or circuitry forming acommunications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, oroptical-electrical equipment).

Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the artto describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth herein,and thereafter use standard engineering practices to integrate suchdescribed devices and/or processes into larger systems. That is, atleast a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can beintegrated into a network processing system via a reasonable amount ofexperimentation.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forfacilitating the encrypted persistent storage of session data acrossbrowser sessions. Some but not all of the techniques described orreferenced herein are implemented using or in conjunction with acustomer relationship management (CRM) system or other databasemanagement system. CRM systems have become a popular way to manage andanalyze customer interactions and data throughout the businesslifecycle. Salesforce.com, Inc. is a provider of CRM services and otherdatabase management services, any of which can be accessed and used inconjunction with the techniques disclosed herein in someimplementations. In some but not all implementations, these variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud.

Some CRM systems can be implemented in various settings, includingorganizations. For instance, a CRM system can be implemented to providedatabase access to users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, employee users in a division of a business organizationmay share data with users in another division of the businessorganization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail below. In some but not allimplementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, and computerprogram products may be configured or designed for use in a multi-tenantdatabase environment.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as customer sales data for a potentially much greater number ofcustomers.

Where there are multiple tenants, a user is typically associated with aparticular tenant. For example, a user could be a salesperson of acompany, which is a tenant of the database system that provides adatabase service.

In some implementations, data objects in the form of CRM records such ascases, accounts, or opportunities are stored in a database system.Updates to a record may include any change to a record. Examples ofrecord updates include field changes in the record, updates to thestatus of a record, as well as the creation or deletion of the recorditself.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get.

In one implementation of a multi-tenant database system, each record forthe tenants has a unique identifier stored in a common table. A recordhas data fields that are defined by the structure of the object (e.g.,fields of certain data types and purposes). A record can also havecustom fields defined by a user. A field can be another record orinclude links thereto, thereby providing a parent-child relationshipbetween the records.

A record can also have a status, the update of which can be provided byan owner of the record or other users having suitable write accesspermissions to the record. The owner can be a single user, multipleusers, or a group.

In various implementations, an event can be an update of a record and/orcan be triggered by a specific action by a user. Which actions triggeran event can be configurable.

Some non-limiting examples of systems, apparatus, and methods aredescribed below for implementing database systems and enterprise levelnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system.Data may be synchronized between a database system of a primaryorganization and a database system of a secondary organization. Datasynchronization may be suspended and resumed, as described above.

FIG. 9A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 9A (and in more detail inFIG. 9B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.9A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creating, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 9A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation ofapplications, storage of the applications into one or more databaseobjects and executing of the applications in a virtual machine in theprocess space of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 9A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer.” User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 9B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 9A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 9B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 9B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 9B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 9B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.9B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 9A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 9B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 9A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc. can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and/orupdate system-level or tenant-level data from system 16, which mayinvolve sending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/orsystem data storage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 insystem 16) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., oneor more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desiredinformation. System data storage 24 may generate query plans to accessthe requested data from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data (e.g., data item) for each category definedby the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table thatdescribes a customer with fields for basic contact information such asname, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table mightdescribe a purchase order, including fields for information such ascustomer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant databasesystems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by alltenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities mightinclude tables for case, account, contact, lead, and opportunity dataobjects, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understoodthat the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with“object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 10A shows a system diagram of an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 900, inaccordance with some implementations. A client machine located in thecloud 904, generally referring to one or more networks in combination,as described herein, may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment via one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machinecan be any of the examples of user systems 12 described above. The edgerouters may communicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 viafirewall 916. The core switches may communicate with a load balancer928, which may distribute server load over different pods, such as thepods 940 and 944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one ormore servers and/or other computing resources, may perform dataprocessing and other operations used to provide on-demand services.Communication with the pods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and936. Components of the on-demand database service environment maycommunicate with a database storage 956 via a database firewall 948 anda database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.10A and 10B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 10Aand 10B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 10B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 10B.

FIG. 10B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs. In some implementations, the QFS 992 maybe an open source file system available from Sun Microsystems® of SantaClara, Calif. The QFS may serve as a rapid-access file system forstoring and accessing information available within the pod 944. The QFS992 may support some volume management capabilities, allowing many disksto be grouped together into a file system. File system metadata can bekept on a separate set of disks, which may be useful for streamingapplications where long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFSsystem may communicate with one or more content search servers 968and/or indexers 994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update datastored in the network file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

In some implementations, one or more application servers or otherservers described above with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B include ahardware and/or software framework configurable to execute proceduresusing programs, routines, scripts, etc. Thus, in some implementations,one or more of application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N) of FIG. 9B can beconfigured to initiate performance of one or more of the operationsdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1A-7D by instructing anothercomputing device to perform an operation. In some implementations, oneor more application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N) carry out, either partially orentirely, one or more of the disclosed operations described withreference to FIGS. 1A-7D. In some implementations, app servers 988 ofFIG. 10B support the construction of applications provided by theon-demand database service environment 900 via the pod 944. Thus, an appserver 988 may include a hardware and/or software framework configurableto execute procedures to partially or entirely carry out or instructanother computing device to carry out one or more operations disclosedherein, including operations described above with reference to FIG. 5 Inalternative implementations, two or more app servers 988 may cooperateto perform or cause performance of such operations. Any of the databasesand other storage facilities described above with reference to FIGS. 9A,9B, 10A and 10B can be configured to store lists, articles, documents,records, files, and other objects for implementing the operationsdescribed above with reference to FIG. 5. For instance, lists ofpublished fields associated with corresponding connections can bemaintained in tenant data storage 22 and/or system data storage 24 ofFIGS. 9A and 9B. In some other implementations, rather than storing oneor more lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, the databasesand other storage facilities described above can store pointers to thelists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, which may instead bestored in other repositories external to the systems and environmentsdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 9A, 9B, 10A and 10B.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM) devices andrandom access memory (RAM) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device comprising: a memory; and aprocessor capable of: during a first browser session of a web browsersituated at the computing device, obtaining a first cryptographic key,the first browser session being associated with a session identifier(ID); during the first browser session of the web browser, obtainingsession data; applying the first cryptographic key to the session datato generate encrypted session data; storing the encrypted session datain the memory; during a second browser session of the web browser,transmitting a cryptographic key request to a server, the second browsersession being associated with the session ID; responsive to thecryptographic key request, receiving a second cryptographic key from theserver; retrieving the encrypted session data from the memory; anddecrypting the encrypted session data using the second cryptographickey.
 2. The computing device as recited in claim 1, the processor beingfurther capable of: determining whether the second cryptographic key isconfigured to decrypt the encrypted session data; wherein decrypting theencrypted session data using the second cryptographic key is performedin response to determining that the second cryptographic key isconfigured to decrypt the encrypted session data.
 3. The computingdevice as recited in claim 2, wherein determining whether the secondcryptographic key is configured to decrypt the encrypted session datacomprises: decrypting an encrypted sentinel value with the secondcryptographic key.
 4. The computing device as recited in claim 1,wherein the first cryptographic key and the second cryptographic key arestored in ephemeral memory.
 5. The computing device as recited in claim1, wherein the memory comprises an indexed database, and wherein theencrypted session data is stored in the indexed database.
 6. Thecomputing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the memory comprises abrowser cache, and wherein the encrypted session data is stored in thebrowser cache.
 7. The computing device as recited in claim 1, theprocessor being further capable of: transmitting, by a second browserinstance associated with the second browser session, the secondcryptographic key to a first browser instance associated with the firstbrowser session.
 8. A computer program product comprisingcomputer-readable program code capable of being executed by one or moreprocessors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, the program code comprising instructions configurable to cause:during a first browser session of a web browser situated at a computingdevice, obtaining a first cryptographic key, the first browser sessionbeing associated with a session identifier (ID); during the firstbrowser session of the web browser, obtaining session data; applying thefirst cryptographic key to the session data to generate encryptedsession data; storing the encrypted session data in a memory of thecomputing device; during a second browser session of the web browser,transmitting a cryptographic key request to a server, the second browsersession being associated with the session ID; responsive to thecryptographic key request, receiving a second cryptographic key from theserver; retrieving the encrypted session data from the memory; anddecrypting the encrypted session data using the second cryptographickey.
 9. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, the programcode comprising instructions further configured to cause: determiningwhether the second cryptographic key is configured to decrypt theencrypted session data; wherein decrypting the encrypted session datausing the second cryptographic key is performed in response todetermining that the second cryptographic key is configured to decryptthe encrypted session data.
 10. The computer program product as recitedin claim 9, wherein determining whether the second cryptographic key isconfigured to decrypt the encrypted session data comprises: decryptingan encrypted sentinel value with the second cryptographic key.
 11. Thecomputer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein the firstcryptographic key and the second cryptographic key are stored inephemeral memory.
 12. The computer program product as recited in claim8, wherein the memory comprises an indexed database, and wherein theencrypted session data is stored in the indexed database.
 13. Thecomputer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein the memorycomprises a browser cache, and wherein the encrypted session data isstored in the browser cache.
 14. The computer program product as recitedin claim 8, the program code comprising instructions further configuredto cause: transmitting, by a second browser instance associated with thesecond browser session, the second cryptographic key to a first browserinstance associated with the first browser session.
 15. A method,comprising: during a first browser session of a web browser situated ata computing device, obtaining a first cryptographic key, the firstbrowser session being associated with a session identifier (ID); duringthe first browser session of the web browser, obtaining session data;applying the first cryptographic key to the session data to generateencrypted session data; storing the encrypted session data in a memoryof the computing device; during a second browser session of the webbrowser, transmitting a cryptographic key request to a server, thesecond browser session being associated with the session ID; responsiveto the cryptographic key request, receiving a second cryptographic keyfrom the server; retrieving the encrypted session data from the memory;and decrypting the encrypted session data using the second cryptographickey.
 16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising:determining whether the second cryptographic key is configured todecrypt the encrypted session data; wherein decrypting the encryptedsession data using the second cryptographic key is performed in responseto determining that the second cryptographic key is configured todecrypt the encrypted session data.
 17. The method as recited in claim15, wherein determining whether the second cryptographic key isconfigured to decrypt the encrypted session data comprises: decryptingan encrypted sentinel value with the second cryptographic key.
 18. Themethod as recited in claim 15, wherein the memory comprises an indexeddatabase, and wherein the encrypted session data is stored in theindexed database.
 19. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein thememory comprises a browser cache, and wherein the encrypted session datais stored in the browser cache.
 20. The method as recited in claim 15,the method further comprising: transmitting, by a second browserinstance associated with the second browser session, the secondcryptographic key to a first browser instance associated with the firstbrowser session.